Rumor: The Creator of ‘Mr. Robot’ Is Working on an Obi-Wan Kenobi ‘Star Wars’ Prequel

Unlike the previous Obi-Wan Kenobi — sorry, Alec Guinness — Ewan McGregor has long been excited about the prospect of returning for more Star Warsmovies, telling Empire Magazine last October that he was the “right age” to make two more movies as the beloved character. While fans were sometimes unimpressed by the prequels, McGregor’s winning performance as the young Jedi was one of the highlights of the film, leading fans to clamor for a standalone Kenobi movie while McGregor was still young enough to be an action star.

And now we have the first tentative proof that the movie might be going forward. According to Omega Underground (via /Film), “two separate sources” have confirmed that Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail has met with Lucasfilm about writing a standalone Star Wars movie, with the sources claiming that the movie is “likely” a standalone Ben Kenobi movie. That would also likely place the film at some point between the events of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, ensuring that McGregor would be the right age to play the character (if he and they so choose).

Leading into last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration, one of the hot (unsubstantiated) rumors was the announcement of a standalone Kenobi movie, with fans expecting to see McGregor prowling the halls of the convention center. That didn’t end up playing out as they had hoped, with McGregor even telling Entertainment Weeklyearlier this week that he didn’t think “it’s going to happen soon if it happens at all” due to the busy production schedule for Disney’s upcoming slate of Star Wars movies. If Esmail is indeed being tasked with developing a Kenobi storyline, this could mean that Lucasfilm and Disney are determined to move ahead with the project, hopefully bringing McGregor back to reprise his iconic character. A lot of speculation right now, but that’s a whole bunch of smoke for there to not be at least a little bit of fire.